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8 Favorite Destinations (East Coast Edition)

One of the most common questions we get is also the hardest to answer: What is the best place you’ve visited? There are so many great places, not to mention experiences, that it is hard to pick just one – or even several – that rank supreme. So instead of crowning a single destination, we’ve chosen to highlight eight favorites selected from the 58 stops we made over 52 weeks of continuous travel.

Something I wouldn’t have guessed before we set out is how much Florida dominates the list. To be fair, we spent four months in Florida, by far the most amount of time in any single state. The flip side is that four months is a long time to occupy a couple of restless travelers like us, and yet we had no problems finding new things to see and do. We moved to a new place almost every week, and no, we never set foot in a single theme park. So props to Florida for being the surprising stand out on Year 1 of our continuing effort to see everything the world has to offer.

To Northeasterners like us, palm trees and warm sun in December are enough reasons to admire this coastal Florida town. But its centuries-old Spanish architecture is the real draw. The city’s historic center is anchored by famous St. Georges Street, a pedestrian thoroughfare lined with interesting architecture from various periods, some dating back to St. Augustine’s sixteenth-century origins. An old Spanish fort and close proximity to great Florida beaches round out the attractions at this fantastic destination city.

Far and away the best place we’ve parked our RV is Hunting Island State Park. This 5,000-acre, semi-tropical barrier island gives visitors the feeling of being far from mainland North America, maybe even on the island of Lost. Much of the campground is shrouded in dense foliage and palmetto trees, but the eastern edge spills out on to the beach, offering ocean front RV spots.

A surprising gem along Florida’s “Emerald Coast,” Grayton Beach is the best beach we’ve ever been to. Its brilliantly-white and powdery-soft sand coupled with turquoise water and zero commercial development make this an ideal spot to take in some sun.

We’re city people, and Washington, D.C., ranks among our favorites in the U.S. It is large enough to have everything you want within easy reach but small enough that you don’t have to fight for space on crowded streets. It is also one of America’s most beautiful cities, with six of its buildings making the top ten list in a recent “America’s Favorite Architecture” survey. And for tourists on a budget, it’s hard to find a destination with more free things to do than D.C.: a slew of Smithsonian museums, including the National Gallery of Art, the National Zoo, the Holocaust Museum, the Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens, the U.S. Capitol, the Library of Congress, the U.S. Supreme Court, all of the national monuments, and probably a whole host of things I’ve missed or forgotten, all gratis. What other city can top that?

One of the best places you’ve probably never heard of is Wakulla, FL. Nestled against the Apalachee Bay where the panhandle connects to the larger Florida peninsula, this area mixes the wetlands of Southern Florida with the Spanish moss draped grandeur of old Georgia. Its two great parks, Edward Ball and St. Marks Wildlife Refuge, rival–and even surpass–the Florida Everglades in beauty and wildlife viewing.

3) Key West, FL

I don’t know why, but Key West just makes us happy. It combines the laid-back vibe of a remote tropical island with all the conveniences of a landlocked city. The people are friendly, the drinks are cold, the water inviting, and the sunsets beautiful. What more could anyone want?

2) Acadia National Park, ME

Some of the Northeast’s most dramatic coastline is found in Acadia; but that isn’t the only reason to go. The park also boasts mountains, woodlands, lakes, a sandy beach set amongst the cliffs, and the East Coast’s only fjord. 125 miles of hiking trails, ranging in difficulty from easy strolls to challenging vertical climbs, give visitors access to some of the best scenery in the East.

I can’t say enough about New Orleans, probably because words fail to describe it adequately. The city has a raw and gritty feeling that is wonderfully balanced by tremendous beauty. Too many places we visit today are so sanitized that all traces of character have been ground down in an attempt to remove rough edges. New Orleans, meanwhile, has character in abundance; character that is all the more real because its edges are still in tact.

We were really surprised by how much cool stuff there was to do and see in Florida. And this “Top 8” list doesn’t even cover all the great stuff we found: Miami, The Everglades, stalking bison in Paynes Prairie, Pensacola, and all of the other Keys. The other states are really going to have to step up their game if they want to impress us for next year’s list. 🙂

We fought the urge to rush out West and I’m glad we did, because there really is a lot of great stuff to see in the Eastern half of the country. But I am looking forward to late summer when we’ll start heading south from Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

Thanks for giving me some new destinations to think about!! We have always wanted to go to Acadia – it’s a long drive for us, which is what deterred us until now. Reading your comments about it may provide the impetus we need to get moving! Thanks for sharing!

I’m a BIG fan of all your posts…
Have you thought about creating a little recommendations list of the most important places you’ve visited so far?
I’m SO keen to visit the US, and I have a few must sees, but I’m not entirely sure what else I could squeeze in on a low budget.
Help from an expert would be nice. ;]
Ryan

We’d have loved to get further north but we kind of ran out of time. We’re really driven by the seasons – you don’t want to be in New Brunswick in an RV at this time of year, so we needed to start heading south. Still on the to-do list, though. Thanks for the recommendation.

Some great places on this list too. Grayton Beach is truly breathtaking. It must be the whitest sand I’ve ever experienced – almost like refined sugar. New Orleans is my favorite place – lived there for seven years and wouldn’t take that time. It becomes part of you.

You’re spot on with Grayton Beach. We haven’t been to every beach in the world, but we’ve been to the some really high profile ones and none of them touch Grayton. And New Orleans, or favorite U.S. city without a doubt.

While you were traveling the East Coast, I do hope you got to see the magnificent Outer Banks of North Carolina and the many wonderful lighthouses there. If not, you need to make a return trip for that alone.

Do you have an archives section? I can’t seem to locate it. I’m looking for your post about the amateur painter who painted a church (he had never had formal art training). Please point me in the right direction (pun intended – ouch!)

Hi there, We do have an archive section under the Links menu above and also a search bar on the right. But sometimes this older stuff is still hard to locate. Here’s a link to the post I think you’re referring to. Cheers.

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[…] we’ve visited 145 different locations in both North and Central America. Last year we highlighted Eight Favorite Destinations from our first year of travel. With another full year under our belts, it’s once again time to […]